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The Conservative government, however, plans to push the touchy issue into the spotlight. Justice Minister Vic Toews has said he will introduce legislation raising the legal age of consent to 16.

Currently the law considers teens under 14 too young to consent to any kind of sexual contact _ but there is an exception for partners close in age. Toews has said any new legislation would include a similar close-in-age exemption to avoid criminalizing partners under 16.

The minister has said the aim would be to provide more protection for younger teens against adult sexual predators, especially in an age of luring via the Internet.


Three homosexual lovers from the mountains of North Carolina have been accused of castrating six consenting men - and videotaping themselves doing so.

Richard Sciara, 61, Michael Mendez, 60, and Danny Reeves, 49, who lived together in the small town of Waynesville, face charges of castration without malice, maiming without malice and practising medicine without a licence.

Officers seized a plastic container from their freezer full of human testicles. They also found prosthetic testicles, a coffee can with bloody scalpels, a silver tin marked "used instruments", syringes and a video camera and tripod.

The items were found in a room the men referred to as "the dungeon".

The suspects told investigators the procedures were completely consensual and the men who requested them travelled long distances to have them carried out.

North Carolina's state law on castration, which dates back to colonial times, does not admit consent as a defence.

The six victims identified so far are not from North Carolina and at least one is from outside the country, lawyers said.

If convicted, the men face 12- to 15-year prison sentences. The case is scheduled to go before a grand jury in a fortnight.